towards a platform for a supplier quality management...

IBIMA Publishing

IBIMA Business Review

http://ibimapublishing.com/articles/IBIMABR/2017/197381/

Vol. 2017 (2017), Article ID 197381, 12 pages

DOI: 10.5171/2017.197381

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Cite this Article as: João Paulo Sousa , Carlos Rompante Cunha, Elisabete Paulo Morais and João Pedro Gomes

(2017)," Towards a Platform for a Supplier Quality Management System", IBIMA Business Review, Vol. 2017

(2017), Article ID 197381, DOI: 10.5171/2017.197381

Research Article

Towards a Platform for a Supplier Quality

Management System

João Paulo Sousa , Carlos Rompante Cunha, Elisabete Paulo Morais and

João Pedro Gomes

Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, EsACT, Mirandela, Portugal

Correspondence should be addressed to: João Paulo Sousa; [email protected]

Received date: 6 October 2015; Accepted date: 8 February 2017; Published date: 26 September 2017

Academic Editor: Paolo Renna

Copyright © 2017. João Paulo Sousa , Carlos Rompante Cunha, Elisabete Paulo Morais and

João Pedro Gomes. Distributed under Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0

Introduction

The automotive production of modern days

had come a long way since it was first

developed and the quality became more

important in this industry, with the start of

the mass production era. The use of relevant

tools according to the organization's needs

became strategic and essential for the

industry in today’s competitive environment.

Using the proper tools and optimizing

processes, industries can improve their

performance and thereby increase customer

satisfaction and enhance supply chain. The

entire automotive industry pursues the

adoption of standards, specifications,

procedures and other practices in order to

improve the final quality of its products.

However, they still have difficulties in finding

the right tools to their production

environment and often these processes are

Abstract

Today any OEM automotive industry that wants a status of a world-class organization has to

follow a proper supplier quality management based on the worldwide recognized international

standards. With this, the customer within a supply chain should have the sureness that the

company has supplier capabilities in place to provide a service that consistently meets its needs

and expectations. Although some of this Supplier Quality Management Systems (SQMS) are

deeply integrated and used inside of an organization, sometimes they are implemented using

inappropriate or limited tools, making the work of employees harder and acting often as

entropy sources in those systems. Having the right tools to handle Inspections as well as

Nonconformance, Complaint, Corrective Action and Concession processes is key to successfully

track the supplier performance. This paper presents a platform to support a SQMS, that fits the

technical specification ISO/TS 16949 requirements.

Keywords: Supplier Quality, Total Quality Management, ISO/TS 16949.

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João Paulo Sousa , Carlos Rompante Cunha, Elisabete Paulo Morais and João Pedro Gomes (2017), IBIMA

Business Review, DOI: 10.5171/2017. 197381

carried out with less appropriate tools to

ensure the good practices required.

An organization spends substantial time and

money purchasing raw materials and

managing suppliers. Therefore, supplier

quality, meaning quality parts, on time

delivery, on right quantity, can substantially

affect the overall quality and cost of a

product. We believe that quality management

procedures and tools are instruments that

help to increase and improve the efficiency

throughout the complete supplier chain.

A company cannot produce a quality product

if the components of which it is made are

faulty. One of the keys to obtain high quality

products is to work with the suppliers to

achieve the same quality level that has been

attained within the organization and this is

why supplier quality management is

mandatory in the complete chain of

automotive industry, and it is one of the

requirements of the technical specification

ISO/TS 16949 (ISO, 2013). To apply this

method successfully, the proper tools play a

decisive role. This paper presents a

prototype for a supplier quality management

system of model defined in Sousa, Cunha,

Morais, & Gomes (2015), which was a based

case study of a Portuguese company in the

auto industry that supplies parts to the major

automobile manufacturers. The prototype

follows the ISTO/TS 16949 standard,

implementing the functioning of their

processes.

With this prototype, we expect to improve

the evaluation and selection of the supplier

network and increase the efficiency of

approval process of new suppliers. Handling

the inspections and non-conformance will

help the tracking and management of raw

material quality, ensuring that all the non-

conformance will be addressed and that

appropriate actions will be requested.

Background

The quality term exists since always and is a

subjective concept that is related to the

perception of each individual and is related

to several factors such as culture, needs and

expectations. In the past, the quality of a

product only meant to comply with the

customer's requirements. Since the industrial

revolution, the quality has developed until

the present day mainly through four eras

(Dahlgaard, Kristensen, & Kanji, 2002): age of

inspection, focused on the product; age of

statistical quality control, focused on the

process; age of quality assurance, focused on

the system; and age of Total Quality

Management (TQM - Total Quality

Management), focused on the business

(Bovas Abraham, 1998):

age of inspection: by monitoring the parts,

only focused in the separation of "Good" and

"Bad" parts;

age of statistical quality control: applied

statistical techniques for process control in

order to identify and minimize or remove

special causes of variation that could affect

the product. Emerged the management style

where the defect causes are identified and

actions in them are taken.

quality assurance era: the cost of rework and

consumer displeasure are considered. A

preventive management started with

positive implications in terms of quality and

consequently resulting in the reduction of

waste.

age of TQM: it is a natural evolution of the

previous three stages, integrating them,

being however wider as it applies to quality

in all areas of a business, including sales,

finance, purchasing, among others and not

only the productive ones.

Total Quality Management Definition

The term TQM was stated to be used in the

mid 80s and became a recognized part of the

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quality related language in the late 80s

(Martínez-Lorente, Dewhurst, & Dale, 1998).

Total quality management (TQM) is a process

that was applied successfully in industries in

the US in the 1980s. By using the process,

large companies, such as Texas Instruments,

Xerox, IBM and Motorola, were able to

improve their business positions by

overcoming threats from global competition

and other changes in the business

environment (Lozier & Teeter, 1996). The

TQM is a comprehensive and structured

approach to organizational management

focusing on the maintenance and continuous

improvement of products, people, services

and processes with the goal to meet or

exceed customer expectations (Flynn,

Schroeder, & Sakakibara, 1994; Goetsch &

Davis, 1997; Shiba, Walden, & Graham,

1993).

TQM is a philosophy with customer focus and

results orientation with the involvement of

all. It is a systematic approach to quality

management across the business, which is

based on the use of tools and techniques of

continuous improvement in all

organizational processes. It is in this

environment that global automotive industry

fits, which requires a high level of product

quality, productivity and competitiveness,

having as engine the continuous

improvement (Asif, Awan, Khan, & Ahmad,

2013; Lanza, 1997; Li, Markowski, Xu, &

Markowski, 2008).

To achieve these goals, the vehicle

manufacturers insist that their suppliers

need to be certified to the quality

management standard known as ISO/TS

16949 (Sroufea & Curkovicb, 2007). This

standard was developed by the industry, the

IATF (International Automotive Task Force),

to stimulate the improvement of the supply

chain (Radley M. Smith, Roderick A. Munro,

2004). The purpose of ISO/TS 16949 is the

development of a quality management

system that generates continuous

improvement through avoidance of defects,

reduction of deviation and waste

minimization, on the entire supply chain of

the automotive industry (Foster Jr., 2008;

Hoyle, 2005). By applying this quality system

standard, automotive manufacturers could

offer superior products and good services to

customers. It is in this context that supplier

quality management has become mandatory,

in an industry that needs to ensure the same

quality level in all steps of the complete

supply chain.

Architecture an Implementation SQMS

In Sousa et al. (2015), were presented and

described the procedures that are part of the

SQM currently in operation in an Original

Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) for

automotive industry in the north of Portugal

and the way they are implemented. In this

section, it will be presented the proposed

model and architecture that will support this

model.

Class Diagram

Fig 1 shows the class diagram in Unified

Modelling Language to describe the classes

and their relationships. This diagram was the

start point to define the prototype class

structure.


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João Paulo Sousa , Carlos Rompante Cunha, Elisabete Paulo Morais and João Pedro Gomes

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Fig 1

Fig 2 shows the relational model diagram of

the database of the SQMS prototype.

database is composed of 28 tables

the system data. Following, it will be

described some of the most relevant

information of the main tab

database. The table Approval hold

parts approvals identified univocally by the

part id, supplier id and index. A

need to be approved to be part of

The table HistoricalApproval records all

changes that happen in the status during

part approval process, and who made these

changes. The table ProjectPlan

which are the projects that belong to each


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Carlos Rompante Cunha, Elisabete Paulo Morais and João Pedro Gomes (2017


1. Class diagram of the SQMS prototype

model diagram of

the database of the SQMS prototype. The

28 tables to hold all

, it will be

described some of the most relevant

information of the main tables of the

The table Approval holds all the

identified univocally by the

part id, supplier id and index. All the parts

be part of the system.

The table HistoricalApproval records all

the status during the

, and who made these

The table ProjectPlan indicates

which are the projects that belong to each

plant of the company. A project m

associated with more than one

table InspectionChecklist saves the

inspection checklists of the parts, each part

has only one inspection checklist. The table

CriteriaModel relates the check

with the inspection checklist and the

ChecklistValuesCriteria contains the

collected values during an inspection

table Inspection relates the inspection made

with the parts, one part can be inspected

several times. The Complaints table records

all claims made during an inspection o

approval. An inspection or approval

raise to several complaints.

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. A project may be

associated with more than one plant. The

table InspectionChecklist saves the

of the parts, each part

has only one inspection checklist. The table

s the checklist criteria

list and the table

ChecklistValuesCriteria contains the

during an inspection. The

table Inspection relates the inspection made

with the parts, one part can be inspected

several times. The Complaints table records

an inspection or

approval. An inspection or approval may

to several complaints.

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Fig 2. Database entity relationship model diagram

Architecture of SQMS

To implement the model define

al. (2015), we implemented a platform

two parts (Fig 3): a web platform and a

mobile app. This architecture

mainly by a Tomcat Application Server, a

PostgresSQL database to storage the data and

the already existing Directory Server to

authenticate the users. The SQMS was built

using the Google Web Toolkit (Google, 2014)

Android SDK, and Java language


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João Paulo Sousa , Carlos Rompante Cunha, Elisabete Paulo Morais and João Pedro Gomes (2017

, DOI: 10.5171/2017. 197381

. Database entity relationship model diagram

model defined in Sousa et

platform set by

a web platform and a

ecture is supported

Application Server, a

database to storage the data and

Directory Server to

The SQMS was built

(Google, 2014),

Java language.

To provide the mobility required to do some

tasks out of the office area, we also

implemented a mobile app to run on a tablet.

This app will be used by the quality

operators to consult inspection checklists

and launch inspections data direc

system. It also allows to add photos, video or

audio to the inspection guides to generate

the claims reports to the supplier.


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To provide the mobility required to do some

tasks out of the office area, we also

implemented a mobile app to run on a tablet.

This app will be used by the quality

operators to consult inspection checklists

and launch inspections data directly on the

system. It also allows to add photos, video or

audio to the inspection guides to generate

the claims reports to the supplier.


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Fig 3. High Level Architecture to support the SQMS model

Web Application

One of the SQMS prototype parts developed

was a Web platform. The choice to

implement a web based architecture brings

several advantages already described in

Sousa et al. (2015). In order to help the

system to be more usable to all users it also

supports internationalization to adapt to the

different languages because the organization

has plants in different countries. The SQMS

prototype is in advanced stage, and this

section will present some of the most

important options of it.

Fig 4 shows the main window after the user

has logged in. The left side of the page has a

vertical menu with the main options divided

in three main sections:

• Searches: which allows the user to quickly search by parts approval,

inspections, claims, concessions,

parts, and projects. This feature was

requested by the quality team to

easily find some of the items by the

part id.

• Data Management which is divided in the following options: Approvals,

Inspections, Complaints,

Concessions, Suppliers, Parts and

Projects. All these options allow the

data management of each of them.

• Administration which offers the following options: Users, Logs,

Plants, Departments and Complaints

Type, related with the platform

administration.

On the right side of the main page lies the

desktop area based on Tab Layout Panel

that will be opened by the selected

option. When the employee logs on the

application, they will see a panel that

cannot be closed, with all the alerts

about pending claims, expired

concessions or open approvals. If the

user finds that the procedure concerning

one of these alerts can be updated, he

has the chance to do it directly in this

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panel. Such as in the case: if the 8D

format report is received from the

supplier, and it was approved by the

Fig 5 shows the concession panel where

possible to view or edit all the concession, or

to add a new concession. A new concession is

created in case of deviations from product or

process characteristics and is always limited

in quantity or time that parts in that status

can be used. For each concession


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s in the case: if the 8D

format report is received from the

supplier, and it was approved by the

quality engineers, the user can update

immediately the claim to the closed state.

Fig 4. SQMS Alert panel

the concession panel where it is

sible to view or edit all the concession, or

to add a new concession. A new concession is

created in case of deviations from product or

process characteristics and is always limited

in quantity or time that parts in that status

sion an action

plan is needed to detect and elimin

root cause of deviation, so s

documents can be uploaded related to that

concession.

Fig 5. SQMS Concessions panel


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quality engineers, the user can update

immediately the claim to the closed state.

detect and eliminate the

so several new

related to that


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Fig 6 shows Inspection Panel where it is

possible to view all, edit or add a new

inspection. This feature is also provided by

SQMS mobile App, that allows to make

inspections in the production line or

incoming warehouse. The inspections are

done with the support of checklist form that

contains the items to evaluate and its

inspection criteria and record through the

SQMS mobile App form. Usually photos are

attached and notes are taken to better

describe the non-conform part, if found. If a

new checklist model is needed to make new

inspection part, its possible to make a new

checklist model that will be available to the

quality operators after the approval of the

quality manager.

Fig 6. SQMS Inspections panel

Fig 7 illustrates the panel view, edit, delete or

add a new supplier to the system. Because

the approval of a new supplier has been done

by a defined procedure and an established

checklist to evaluate the general capabilities

of the supplier; this new supplier option

allows to attach some documents like

contracts, NDA (Non-Disclosure

Agreements), audit results, among others.

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Fig 8 shows the complaint panel that

all the open complaints, allow

edit or delete a complaint. Several reports

describing the failure can be attached and a

report is created to the supplier. When an

answer from the supplier is received

analyzed by the quality engineer


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Fig 7. SQMS Supplier panel

shows the complaint panel that displays

all the open complaints, allowing to create,

Several reports

e can be attached and a

ted to the supplier. When an

answer from the supplier is received, it is

alyzed by the quality engineer. If accepted,

then the first parts received after actions

implemented need to be inspected and

positively evaluated that the complaint

be closed. The closed complaints do not

appear in the panel and are only accessible

the historical panel.

Fig 8. SQMS Complaints panel


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then the first parts received after actions

implemented need to be inspected and

complaint can

The closed complaints do not

only accessible in


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Fig 9 shows the historic of all operations done in the system. Each record shows the

date and the user which made the

Mobile App

A mobile App to be used on a tablet was

developed to allow the quality operator

access and manage data of the SQMS

platform. Some of the most import features

are to consult the checklist that co

items to evaluate and its inspection criteria.

The quality operators can also use this app

when they are in the production line or

incoming warehouse making inspections and

recording these inspection data

and saving them into the system database


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Carlos Rompante Cunha, Elisabete Paulo Morais and João Pedro Gomes (2017


the historic of all operations done in the system. Each record shows the id operation,

the operation.

Fig 9. SQMS Historic panel

A mobile App to be used on a tablet was

developed to allow the quality operator

of the SQMS

platform. Some of the most import features

checklist that contains the

items to evaluate and its inspection criteria.

The quality operators can also use this app

when they are in the production line or

incoming warehouse making inspections and

data using a form

stem database

(Fig 10 – left screen). If a non-conform part is

found, the deviation needs to be analyzed

and according to the severity of the defect

the parts will be blocked and claimed to the

supplier or a concession will be issued.

During the inspection process,

inspections or open complaint related

part can be checked to assist the quality

operator (Fig 10 – right screen).

solves a common problem that

reported, that in different plants of the same

group, were found defects in common parts

and this was handled independently,

consuming time and resources.

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id operation,

conform part is

to be analyzed

severity of the defect

the parts will be blocked and claimed to the

supplier or a concession will be issued.

process, old

open complaint related to that

part can be checked to assist the quality

right screen). This feature

that has been

that in different plants of the same

ects in common parts

independently,

consuming time and resources.

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Fig 10. SQMS Mobile App

Discussion and Future Work

With a more global supply chain, it turns

more difficult to answer and act on time,

when a problem appears. The use of lead

technologies as specific software and mobile

devices, helps to strengthen the supply chain,

making it possible for operator within plant

to consult or input richer data (text, audio,

photos, videos) from anywhere, using any

mobile device. These data stored on a

database can be quickly viewed and analyzed

by the management, allowing to take

decisions more quickly and in a correct way.

With the SQMS system, we expect to improve

the internal processes to control the quality

of the parts and suppliers. It is also expected

to ensure that all quality employees within

plant (operators, quality engineers and

management quality) follow the quality

processes adopted by the company.

In this paper, we have presented the SQMS

prototype which supports a Supplier Quality

Management System of a particular OEM Car

Manufacturer. The major contribution of this

work is the implementation of a platform

that automates the several parts of the

supplier quality processes in the scenario of a

multinational company with several plants

across the world.

A prototype was developed to validate the

proposed model and architecture. With this

prototype, we intend to collect data in a

scenario of manufacturing environment, to

evaluate the real impact that this system can

have in the overall efficiency of the supplier

quality management process of this OEM

automotive industry.

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